Mekhet Beat Sheet
Beat Sheets are ways to gain extra beats (experience) to spend on your character, by delving further into the character's nuances and by giving storytelling staff more handles to interact with your character. Whenever a question asks you about someone from your past, you have the option of describing the relevant details and the interaction, but leaving them unnamed. This invites staff to match up the shadows in your past with the shadows in other PCs', giving another dimension of interaction. This Beat Sheet is for Mekhet only. Non-Mekhet characters may get up to five Beats from this sheet if there are questions that reasonably apply to them and have not been answered elsewhere. Mekhet Beat Sheet (Twenty Beats) 'The Kiss '(One Beat) The Kiss is an amazing, euphoric sensation - for both parties. For the vampire, hunger is a constant companion, a powerful, painful thirst that throbs and twists in the gut. Every gulp of the vessel's hot blood further suppresses that painful craving and adds to the already considerable pleasure that the vampire experiences from taste alone. Feeding is always orgasmically good, and while you're drinking you feel alive. In the afterglow your body hums, feeling full where before you were hollow. The Kiss is love and lust for both parties. It's the sex you know you shouldn't have, but will come back for. That said, the details are different for each vampire. A Mekhet's Kiss might feel like a revelation, like a corpse-cold epiphany, like a surge of enlightenment, like you're on the verge of realizing some great secret or insight. For the victim it's frequently like the Mekhet sees your deepest and most deeply-hidden shame and still accepts you for who you are. How does your Kiss feel for your vessel? How does it feel for you? 'The Curse '(Three Beats) Mekhet suffer the Tenebrous Curse, an attunement to the otherworldly that makes vampiric banes affect them more strongly. All vampires are affected by fire and sunlight, but Mekhet have an additional Bane. What is yours? Why has your blood expressed this way? (Two Beats) How does your Curse influence your behavior? What strategies, if any, do you use to mitigate its effects? (One Beat) 'The Bloodsong '(One Beat) Vitae is always molten ecstacy. It burns the lips and scorches the throat, it's sweet and savory at the same time, it's the best thing you've ever tasted. That said, every vampire's blood tastes slightly different (much like every vintage of wine tastes slightly different) - and they're all the best thing you've ever tasted. Perhaps more importantly, the Blood is alive. A vampire can always feel it, whether it sluggishly collects in a soggy morass deep in the dead gut or whether it clings to the bones and burns like napalm. Again, there are commonalities between clans, though there's also a significantly greater scope for variation. For Mekhet the Blood might hold traces of all the lives she's ever tasted, echoes and slivers of memory in a sea of whispers. It might be a hollow, aching emptiness that makes her feel like she's nothing inside. It might be a hungry, swallowing darkness full of darting voices that whisper for her to do things. It might click-click-click like clockwork, like she shares her skin with a machine instead of a Beast. It might be flashes of pure emotion, unfaded by distance but still disconnected, as though she's a conduit rather than the source. What is your Bloodsong? 'The Beast '(Five Beats) Your Beast has no separate existence from you, of course, but for most vampires it feels like an Other that lives inside the same skin, with its own desires. For vampires who maintain a firm grip on their sanity the Beast might only appear in the dreams of the daysleep or in their mind's eye, a purely psychological projection. Vampires who are a little less bound by objective reality might glimpse their Beast in the corner of their vision, or hear it whispering in their ear. How do you envision your Beast? Is it tied in some way to your deepest hungers? A bloated worm's neck and fat mouth for its bottomless hunger, a Priapic Big Bad Wolf for its depraved lusts? Does it have a voice, wicked in its mammalian seduction or crass in its beserk invective? Could the Beast be something from your mortal life, such as an abusive father dragging his whipping belt or your once-best friend, murdered in frenzy? The Beast within might just be an embodiment of you at your worst: bloody, brutal, wide-eyed, savage in the deepest meaning of the word. Describe your Beast. (Two Beats) Every vampire can evoke three aspects of the Beast by lashing out with her predatory aura: *The Monstrous Beast is the Beast as Destroyer, whose every instinct is to rip asunder and who evokes primative survival instincts in its victims. *The Seductive Beast is the Beast as Tempter, who desires hot abandon, and a temporary escape from reality, inspiring the primal need for instant gratification in its victims. *The Competitive Beast is the Beast as Alpha, who needs to command and control, and evokes submission or proof of dominance from its victims. Describe how each aspect of your Beast manifests in your predatory aura. How does it feel to the victim? (One Beat each) 'Controlling it '(One Beat) At those moments when the Beast rises within you and frenzy threatens, how does it feel to try and stave off those urges? Perhaps you imagine the Beast literally caged, snarling and snapping inside bars of iron or steel. Perhaps you do the mental equivalent of covering your ears with both hands and declaring 'lalala, I'm not listening' to its whispers. Perhaps you feel it only as a rising surge of emotion and combat it with the old tricks of mortality - a deep calming breath, conscious control of your volume and tone, the relaxation of tensed muscles. 'Frenzy '(Three Beats) No two vampires behave exactly the same way when they enter frenzy. The basic personality of the vampire is distilled into its most predatory during the loss of control, eliminating the obstruction of higher mental function, but retaining certain traits. Outgoing, physical Kindred may howl with rage and tear mindlessly at their prey, while more withdrawn intellectual types become chillingly silent, moving with horrifying precision. A vampire's bloodsong strongly influences how they behave at such times, and correspondingly there are clan-related patterns. When Mekhet frenzy they often do so with cool precision but no volition, as automatic and precise as clockwork, and with a similar amount of passion. The things that push a vampire into frenzy tend to fall into basic categories: fear, hunger, anger. The Beast's behavior is obviously different depending on the frenzy's trigger and the Beast's desires. Describe a time that you have frenzied. What was it the Beast wanted, and how did it behave? You may give up to three examples, with each addressing a different motivation. (One Beat each) 'Powers '(Three to Six Beats) You can't learn a Discipline without it changing you. Oh, not a deeply as a Coil changes you, granted - more insidiously than that, and on a psychological rather than a physical level. With sight comes understanding; with understanding comes sadness. Auspex opens all the secrets of the world to the Mekhet. They can see who is crying for justice when they really want blood, and who is congratulating a friend when they're seething with jealousy. The world is revealed in all its deceit and hypocrisy, and it usually doesn't take long before it all becomes petty, commonplace, and terribly boring. Some Mekhet find that they cannot turn off their Auspex, forcing them to wear gloves or be constantly bombarded by the memories and emotions impressed into everything they touch. On the other hand, Lay Open the Mind can breach the acres of empty space between one Kindred and another, making the Mekhet feel connected in her Requiem. If you have Auspex, how has it affected you? (Two Beats) If you don't have Auspex, what is your opinion of it, and those who use it? (One Beat) Celerity might make you feel literally untouchable, allowing you to throw yourself into more dangerous situations than you would have dared before. It might make everyone else seem hopelessly clumsy and slow, bringing a slow burn of impatience as you wait... for everyone... else... to catch... up... with you. If you have Celerity, how has it affected you? (Two Beats) If you don't have Celerity, what is your opinion of it, and those who use it? (One Beat) Some Mekhet find that Obfuscate frees them from the rules of society, becoming slovenly or even going around naked. Nobody can see them anyway, so what does it matter? Some become disillusioned with humanity after watching their hypocrisy and weakness - the graceful supermodel who picks her nose, the pious priest who masturbates compulsively Some lose their identity in the shadows - especially those who frequently use The Familiar Stranger. If you have Obfuscate, how has it affected you? (Two Beats) If you don't have Obfuscate, what is your opinion of it, and those who use it? (One Beat) Category:Mekhet Category:Beat Sheets